It uses slightly less power than the retina model that came after it. (9W as opposed to 10.5W)

I think this refurbished model is exactly the same as the current non-retina MacBook that’s on the Apple store (AU) for $1349 new.

The other MacBook to consider would be the big brother of this model – the 2.9GHz i7 version. It’s $180 more. But it runs a bit hotter, fan a bit noisier, and check this out. On medium and heavy workloads (watching movies etc) the i7 has less battery life. Yet another reason why the 13″ i5 MacBook is so good.

UPGRADING THE RAM AND HARD DRIVE

If you want to upgrade this 2012 MacBook it you can get more RAM and a faster SSD drive from Crucial. They ship internationally and are cheap but reliable.

Click here to get to the page above then select the second Macbook from the list (MacBook Pro 13-inch Mid 2012) and it will give you a list of compatible RAM and SSD drives for this MacBook.

8G RAM from Crucial will set you back $95 (similar to Apple’s $100) but a 240G SSD is just $160 (compared to $400 from Apple).